Who can I contact for free help with certain IRS forms?
As part of my US personal tax return to the IRS this year I need to fill out some esoteric IRS forms that are not supported by most personal tax filing software so I have to fill them out manually, and I'm making use of the sister Instructions documents that the IRS makes available with every form.
However I've run into questions I have as some fields in some forms are unclear and/or hard to understand how to answer correctly and the Instructions documents do not provide any clarity (for example, form 5471 Schedule O has a field "Internal Service Center where filed" which I don't know how to answer as I mail my return to a non-service-center IRS PO box, not a service-center (I cannot use e-file as I am not a Tax Professional with access to e-file, and Individual e-file does not support form 5471, for example).
I called the IRS's phone number and after navigating their phone menu I received a prerecorded message informing me that they no-longer provide help with filing out forms on the phone.
So the only other option I can think of is to visit my local IRS office for a Face-to-Face meeting, but that seems excessive when I only need help with a few fields.
I'd like to stick to free, first-party forms of assistance. As a matter of principle I don't believe I should have any pay any expenses (beyond postage costs) to file my tax return.
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If you're filing form 5471 without a EA/CPA who's familiar with it and other related issues holding your hand - you're an insane person.
Free assistance you can get from VITA and similar, but they won't be familiar with the "esoteric" forms for the reason them being esoteric and not generally used by their target population (poor old people).
As a matter of principle I don't believe I should have any pay any
expenses (beyond postage costs) to file my tax return.
Pick your battles. You're not 16 anymore, I would guess.
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